Spacewar! and John Madden Football are now in the World Video Game Hall of Fame

If you have a Ms Pacman cocktail table for sale, you might have been hoping the game would get into the World Video Game Hall of Fame to add a further boost to its value. However, while the 1980s classic did make it onto the 12-strong shortlist, it was not one of the four chosen.

Those honors instead went to Spacewar!, John Madden Football, Tomb Raider, and Final Fantasy VII.

Every year a panel of 30 judges pick a selection of games to go into the Hall of Fame. To get in, the game must have icon-status, it must have longevity, it must be known internationally, and it must have influenced the video game industry in some way.

While fans of Ms. Pac-Man believe it meets all these criteria, it is hard to argue with the four games the judges selected, not least because they picked games that spanned 35 years.

Spacewar!

While Pong is widely recognized as being one of the first mainstream video/arcade games, Spacewar! pre-dates it by 10 years. The influence it has had on the video game industry, therefore, is without question. It was developed by Steve Russell in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a computer called the DEC PDP-1. The game features two spaceships in a dogfight.

The original version involved players using front-panel test switches to control the spaceship and shoot torpedoes. As you might expect, this wasn't easy so the developers made what was probably the first every game controller.

It may not be a game you have played, but its position in video game history is hard to dispute.

John Madden Football

John Madden Football came out in 1988 on the Commodore and the Apple II and was made by video game giant Electronic Arts. It has sold 120 million copies.

None of the teams in the game are NFL teams and none of the players were real players because of license issues, but this did not dampen enthusiasm for the game.

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is a game that needs no introduction. It first came out in 1996 and since then there have been multiple versions on multiple platforms, movie spin-offs, and more. Over 63 million copies have been sold around the world.

Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VII came out a year after the original Tomb Raider. It was very ambitious, with a complex story that involved in-depth role-playing.

If this nostalgia for classic games has sparked your interest, why not check out our selection of classic arcade machines for sale.

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